Shutdown fever

One would expect that the leaders of the American government are responsible adults who would not behave like petulant children. However, their action to shut down the government that they are entrusted to run indicates otherwise. It reveals astonishing irresponsibility and disregard for the common good.

Fortunately, the system has safeguards to prevent anarchy. Even though some 800,000 federal employees faced furloughs, the partial shutdown stops short of being a crippling blow.

While tourist attractions get shuttered, government workers who are classified as essential — such as air traffic controllers, border patrol agents and most food inspectors — remain on the job. So are members of the military, whose pay is exempted from shutdown.

Employees whose work is financed through fees, including those who issue passports and visas, also continue to work. The self-funded Postal Service remains in operation, and the government continues to pay Social Security benefits and Medicare and Medicaid fees on time.

Still, a prolonged shutdown would cause much harm.

"Absolutely I'm exasperated because this is entirely unnecessary," President Obama declared.

But he hasn't done anything to prevent the shutdown, preferring to blame Republicans instead.

A stalemate exists because House Republicans insist that any government funding bill include cuts or delays to President Obama's signature health care law, a condition Democrats rejected as unacceptable. House Republicans and Senate Democrats have remained at loggerheads for weeks, barely speaking to one another.

The business community, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which usually sides with Republicans, supported the White House in urging the GOP to drop their demand that the health care law be tied to funding the government.

Several House Republicans have spoken out in favor of abandoning that approach, but they have not built enough of a movement to thwart the efforts of tea party Republicans who want to hold firm.

Increasingly, it appears that a potential solution is to tie the government funding to an increase of the debt limit. It is an approach both parties said they could support.

Indeed, reducing debt should be a top priority. The government is drowning in obligations, and the emphasis should be on reducing indebtedness. Failing to do so could endanger economic stability for years to come. That is unacceptable.

Here are some sobering figures:

•Today, our national debt is nearly $17 trillion. It has continued to increase at an average of $1.86 billion per day since Sept. 30, 2012.

•The estimated population of the United States is about 317 million; so each citizen's share of this debt is more than $53,500, and the debt per taxpayer is over $148,000. Clearly, that is unsustainable.

The government will not be able to borrow more money unless the debt ceiling is raised by Oct. 17. Economists have warned that failing to raise the ceiling would trigger a default on government debt that could lead to a meltdown in debt markets and push the economy into another recession. That could be disastrous.

A meeting of 14 chief executives from top financial firms at the White House produced a dire warning about the debt ceiling.

"There's a consensus that we shouldn't do anything that hurts this recovery," Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, declared. "You can re-litigate these issues in a political forum but we should not use threats of causing the United States to fail on its obligation to repay debts as a cudgel."

When President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner tried to hammer out a so-called "grand bargain" in August 2011, they failed.

They diverted economically dangerous debt default by creating automatic budget cuts, known as sequester, in exchange for Republican agreement to raise the debt ceiling.

But with both sides at odds again, it is highly uncertain how — and whether — combining debt ceiling and government funding into one deal can work.

"We don't want to close the government down," said Sen. Paul Ryan, an influential Republican from Wisconsin. "We want it open. But we want a budget agreement that gets the debt under control."

Indeed, that is a desirable goal to be pursued vigorously. The question is how to proceed.

Linking policy issues — health care reform with budget priorities in this case — can be awkward and less than effective. Yet there should be a way to curtail costly and cumbersome Obamacare and the massive government intervention it entails.

Everybody says they don't want to see the government shuttered, but no one seems to do much to keep it running smoothly.

Unfortunately, it's not that simple.

People have an active role to play in shaping their own lives. They should realize it takes an effort to cope with challenges, try to avoid pitfalls and lead a meaningful life.